Segway’s New Scooter Is Way Less Dorky, Can Drive Itself

Segway-Ninebot has been rethinking mobility for longer than most. In recent years, the company has progressed beyond its original namesake vehicle (which quickly became a byword for dorkiness) to produce a range of mobility solutions. Segway revealed one of them, the new KickScooter T60, at an event in Beijing last week.

The KickScooter T60 is an AI self-driving scooter that can pilot itself back to a charging station. Users can also remotely summon it using the cloud, because it’s 2019 and everything is in the cloud.

The scooter should launch in 2020, and will start at $1,420.

Shared mobility fleets seem likely to use this scooter more than individuals. The KickScooter T60 will cost more than twice as much as Segway’s next-best scooter, and that added cost mostly goes towards functions individuals don’t need. Where the additional cost may make sense is in letting Lyft, Uber or other companies avoiding paying people to return scooters to charging points.

How the rest of the transportation world will adapt to self-driving scooters is unclear. Self-driving scooters whizzing by soundlessly below eye level seems like it would be a nuisance for both vehicle operators and pedestrians.